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John's opera ramblings
Sun, 16 Dec 2018 20:01:48 +0000 en
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The other Naples operahttps://operaramblings.blog/2018/12/16/the-other-naples-opera/
https://operaramblings.blog/2018/12/16/the-other-naples-opera/#respondSun, 16 Dec 2018 19:55:14 +0000http://operaramblings.blog/?p=25359Continue reading →]]>There are two girls and two guys. The guys are not who they appear to be. Nobody is sure who is pairing off with who and there’s a scheming servant. And we are in Naples. You know the opera of course. It’s Rossini’s L’occasione fa il ladre. It’s one of Rossini’s early one act farsi for La Fenice and it’s quite good, if very silly. There are plenty of musical high jinks with fast paced ensembles and some wicked coloratura. And it has an unambiguously happy ending. You will also likely recognise some of the music as, in best Rossini fashion, he used chunks of it in later works.

It’s not often seen but it was staged, along with other early Rossini works, by Michael Hampe at Schwetzingen in 1992 where it was filmed by SWR for TV broadcast. It’s typical of Hampe’s productions at that time. It’s entirely traditional with simple sets but careful arrangement of the action. It’s also well sung and acted by an experienced cast of Rossinians including Susan Patterson (who has awesome coloratura), Monica Bacelli, Natale de Carolis, Robert Gambill and Alessandro Corbelli. Gianluigi Gelmetti conducts with the Radio-Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart in the pit. It’s all very efficent and enjoyable.

The video quality is very decent for a 1990’s TV production (It’s 4:3 aspect ratio) and it’s helped by the small set. Claus Viller was responsible for the camera work and is pleasingly unfussy. The sound options are DTS 5.1, Dolby 5.1 and PCM stereo. I listened to the first and it’s fine without being exceptional. Subtitle options are English, German, Italian, French and Spanish. The booklet has a short essay, a synopsis and a full track listing.

This is the only video recording of this work currently available and is available separately or, at time of writing, as part of a five disk set of early Rossini operas, all directed by Michael Hampe and all recorded at Schwetzingen in roughly the same period. At $30-40 for the whole set it’s a decent bargain.

]]>https://operaramblings.blog/2018/12/16/the-other-naples-opera/feed/0operaramblings1.drink2.naples3.bag4.finaleFlurrieshttps://operaramblings.blog/2018/12/16/flurries/
https://operaramblings.blog/2018/12/16/flurries/#respondSun, 16 Dec 2018 14:40:53 +0000http://operaramblings.blog/?p=25352Continue reading →]]>There have been a series of interesting announcements about composers and commissions from the Canadian Opera Company recently. First is the announcement that Ian Cusson is to become composer-in-residence from August 2019. Cusson is part Métis and, readers may recall, featured as half of a memorable evening kicking off the new Confluence concert series in October. There’s an initial commission announced too. He will work with Colleen Murphy on a piece for “families and young people” that weaves elements of myth into a contemporary urban setting.

There have also been changes in the line up of the main stage commissions at the COC. La Reine-Garçon, first announced in 2015 and originally scheduled as an Ana Sokolovic composition for next season , is moving forward as a co-commission with the Opéra de Montréal with Julien Bilodeau as composer and Michel Marc Bouchard as librettist. Target date is now 2023.

Meanwhile Ana will compose a new opera; The Old Fools, with Paul Bentley as librettist. The piece is based on a Philip Larkin poem of the same title about his fear of aging and death. Seems like a market oriented approach. This one is scheduled to premier in 2021.

And in non COC news, Soundstreams have announced a new piece for performance in April 2019 (April 9th/10th/11th at The Great Hall). It’s a series of seven songs; one for each deadly sin, and each composed and performed in a different vocal style/tradition. Participants include Elizabeth Shepherd, Aviva Chernick, Robin Dann, Christopher Mayo and Analia Llugdar.

Finally, there’s a semi-staged version of Rossini’s Le Comte Ory coming to Trinity St. Paul’s on March 2nd featuring a range of young singers from the Domoney Artists Management stable. Singers include Caitlin Wood, Marjorie Maltais, Asitha Tennekoon and Clarence Frazer with Nicole Bellamy at the piano.

Toronto Operetta Theatre’s seasonal production this year is Strauss’ Die Fledermaus. It runs December 28th through January 2nd at the St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts. The cast includes Lara Ciekiewicz as Rosalinde, Adam Fisher as Eisenstein and Caitlin Wood as Adele. Derek Bate conducts the TOT orchestra and Guillermo Silva-Marin directs.

The 21C Music Festival runs from January 16th to 20th. This time it will celebrate the American minimalist composer Terry Riley, with his music being performed in three of the concerts, including one that he will headline, titled Terry Riley: Live at 85! Full details at rcmusic.ca.

This one is not opera but I think it will appeal to many of my readers. It’s an adaptation of Euripides’ Iphigenia among the Taurians called Iphigenia and the Furies (on Taurian Land). It’s by Ho Ka Kei and will be presented by Saga Collectif at the Aki Studio from January 6th to January 20th at the Aki Studio (opening night January 10th). It’s directed Jonathan Seinen and features Thomas Olajide, Virgilia Griffith and PJ Prudat. More details and tickets at sagacollectif.com

From January 16th to 20th Tafelmusik are presenting an 18th-century Roman soirée called The Harlequin Salon. It’s a multimedia program created, scripted, and illustrated by Tafelmusik oboist and artist Marco Cera. Combining music, caricature sketches, projected images, costumes, and text, The Harlequin Salon opens a door into the glittering world of Pier Leone Ghezzi; renowned painter, party host, and history’s first professional caricaturist. The Harlequin Salon features guest artists Roberta Invernizzi, soprano, and Dino Gonçalves, actor, with stage direction by Guillaume Bernardi It plays at Trinity-St. Paul’s Centre. Full program details are available at tafelmusik.org.

Finally, Tapestry Opera is premiering a new piece called Hook Up from January 29th to February 9th at Theatre Passe Muraille. Hook Up is by Chris Thornborrow (composer) and Julie Tepperman (librettist) and combines the genres of musical theatre and opera. The stage director and dramaturge will Richard Greenblatt. Itis billed as “a darkly humorous exploration of privacy and consent in three teens’ coming-of-age.” The cast includes Emily Lukasik, Alicia Ault, Alexis Gordon, Nathan Carroll and Jeff Lillico. The music director is Jennifer Tung.

]]>https://operaramblings.blog/2018/12/16/tidings/feed/0operaramblingsjpeg14Nozze at Toronto City Operahttps://operaramblings.blog/2018/12/10/nozze-at-toronto-city-opera/
https://operaramblings.blog/2018/12/10/nozze-at-toronto-city-opera/#commentsMon, 10 Dec 2018 22:54:52 +0000http://operaramblings.blog/?p=25346Continue reading →]]>Toronto City Opera has been around for a while but its previous performance location at the Bickford Centre was quite sufficient to keep me away. The Miles Nadal JCC is quite another matter. The basic idea of TCO is that the chorus is open to, essentially, anybody and that their subscriptions, plus fund raising, allow the company to do a couple of staged shows each year with young professional soloists, director, conductor and pianist. So, in theory it’s a chorus centric endeavour so the choice of Le Nozze di Figaro seems a bit odd since it has less than ten minutes of chorus and that is usually covered by a small group of eight or so ladies. That said, Nozze is their first of two productions this season and I saw the last show in the run this afternoon.

Alaina Viau directed and was responsible for all the design elements. She treats it as a fairly straightforward comedy with nods to the commedia; notably in the heavy makeup of especially the male characters. It’s in modern dress; at least for the principals. The chorus wear assorted white outfits with plastic looking black and white wigs. The effect is somewhat akin to the the “Gumby chorus” in the Salzburg Ascanio in Alba. The other “modern” element of the production is that the surtitles tell the story in an updated way and are often quite far from being a translation of the Italian actually being sung while also including elements like “Hey it’s opera. The next fourteen pages the characters repeat themselves.” I think this is a cop out. If one wants a trendy English updating of daPonte’s text then sing the trendy English updating!

There is some attempt to give the chorus more stage time. Besides a very large, mixed, chorus rather incongruously singing about being village maidens they are introduced as voyeurs in Cherubino’s initial scene and as a sort of mobile set element in the fourth act. The little music they have is really rather well sung.

So, to the principals. It’s a young cast and they are all good movers, good actors and good musicians. The quality of the voices on display though was a bit variable. Brittany Rae’s Susanna was well managed and all the notes were there but the voice is just too bright and strident at the top end for my taste. This may well change. She’s still young and she’s certainly a good musician. Dylan Wright sang Figaro and he’s about eight feet tall and has a really powerful voice. He’s also a very good comic actor. I just don’t find the voice very beautiful but if, as one may reasonably expect, the voice just keeps getting bigger there’s a Wotan in there and who cares whether Wotan sounds beautiful?

Peter Bass’ Count was competent but not terribly distinctive and all the minor roles were well taken with a notable grasp of the appropriate style by Jeffrey Smith as Basilio/Don Curzio (no effort at all being made to present these two roles as separate people). Which leaves the two vocal stars of the show. Jonelle Sills sang the Countess. Readers will know I’m a fan and she didn’t disappoint here. The Countess really has to do two things; nail Porgi amor and Dove sono and evoke an appropriate sense of pathos in the denouement. All the boxes got ticked here with plenty of beautiful creamy tone and tear jerking. Lillian Brooks also impressed as Cherubino. She sang extremely convincingly and managed the appropriate girl_plays_boy_plays_girl dorkiness really well. Ivan Jovanovic managed the three and a quarter hour marathon at the keyboard with aplomb and Jenn Tung managed to keep the various elements properly in synch.

So, an enjoyable way to spend a Sunday afternoon but I’m curious to see what they do with an opera with more work for the chorus. La Traviata next year might just be the thing to check out.

Photos when I get them.

]]>https://operaramblings.blog/2018/12/10/nozze-at-toronto-city-opera/feed/5operaramblingsElectric Messiah IVhttps://operaramblings.blog/2018/12/05/electric-messiah-iv/
https://operaramblings.blog/2018/12/05/electric-messiah-iv/#respondWed, 05 Dec 2018 11:22:21 +0000http://operaramblings.blog/?p=25339Continue reading →]]>Soundstreams’ Electric Messiah is back for a fourth outing, again under the musical direction of Adam Scime. The formula is basically the same as previous years.

Take a quartet of singers from different vocal traditions (Jonathan MacArthur, Katherine Hill, Aviva Chernick and Alex Samaras)

Throw in a dancer (Lybido)

Have some of the text sung in a language relevant to the singer (Gaelic, Hebrew, Swedish this time)

Stage it at Drake Underground

This year in addition there was some interpolated music not directly derived from Messiah; to whit, a gospel piece for Samaras called “Personal Jesus” and a harpsichord solo.

The balance of voices, the new music, changes to the staging all made for a different experience from previous years. Musically it’s probably more coherent and integrated. The staging has simplified cutting out some of the more gimmicky stuff (no mobile phones). There’s also much less of Charles Jennens’ original text; at least in English. This likely will not bother a lot of people; most if post-show discussion is to go by, but it did bother me. Much of the appeal of the Messiah, for me, lies in the quirky but powerful extracts from the KJV that Jennens chose. I also found the interpolations; coming close together in the middle third of the show, pulled me out of the Messiah side of the experience. Maybe if they had been spaced further apart I’d have felt different.

The performances though were excellent. All four singers made notable contributions from the four part arrangement of “Comfort Ye”, to Katherine accompanying herself on nyckelharpa, to Aviva’s jazzy, moving “He Gave His Back to the Smiters”, to Jonathan’s kilted Gaelic (no yak!) and Alex’ powerful “Personal Jesus”. My only very minor beef would be that the voices were a bit similar in timbre; all quite bright, so the darker tones one gets with the traditional SATB quartet were somewhat absent.

There was some very fine playing from all the instrumentalists and Lybido did his thing, as he does. So there it is; another, different Electric Messiah with a somewhat different focus. It’s a good show that’s evolved quite far from EM I. I want to see another one but wonder whether there’s room to keep “evolving” the show. Maybe it’s time to rethink the concept from scratch?

Electric Messiah plays at the Drake Underground with further shows tonight and tomorrow night at 8pm.

]]>https://operaramblings.blog/2018/12/05/electric-messiah-iv/feed/0operaramblingsem4Open Chambershttps://operaramblings.blog/2018/11/29/open-chambers/
https://operaramblings.blog/2018/11/29/open-chambers/#respondThu, 29 Nov 2018 12:15:14 +0000http://operaramblings.blog/?p=25329Continue reading →]]>Staging art song and chamber works happens in Toronto but not a lot. Over the last few years I’ve seen interesting shows from Against the Grain, Collectif and UoT Opera among others. As it’s something I tend to enjoy I was pleased to catch the opening performance of Opera 5’s Hindemith and Shostakovich program; itself the first in a proposed series called Open Chambers.

Last night’s show featured sopranos Jacquie Woodley and Rachel Krehm with a small ensemble of Vadim Serebryany (piano), Melissa Scott (oboe), Yosuke Kawasaki (viola/violin) and Wolfram Koessel (cello). Design and direction was by Patrick Hansen. There were three works; Hindemith’s Oboe Sonata and Die Serenaden and Shostakovich’s Seven Romances on Poems of Alexander Blok.

The performances were of a very high quality; especially given that the musicians were having to more than just stand/sit and sing/play. The songs were split between Jacquie’s quite pure, bright voice; which I have always found well suited to 20/21st century music, and Rachel Krehm’s more dramatic sound; perhaps not inappropriately as the Shostakovich was written for Vishnevskaya. The last song in each cycle was split between the two singers to good effect. Some really gorgeous playing too from the instrumentalists , especially perhaps Melissa in the opening sonata.

As to the music itself, it’s the sort of music that makes me wonder why people shy away from mid 20th century modernism. The Hindemith is intensely lyrical and very, very beautiful. The Shostakovich, too, has passages of great beauty but mixed here with something tougher and harsher but no less accessible. After all how is one to set a text like Blok’s Gamayun:

On endless waters’ smooth expanse,
By sunset clad in purple splendour,
In Delphic tone she ever sings,
But cannot spread her weakened pinions…

She prophesies the Tartar yoke,
Its course of bloody executions,
And quake, and famine, and alarm,
The righteous’ downfall, evil’s power…

In dark primeval terror wreathed,
Her countenance aflame with passion,
She speaks; and prophecies resound
Through truthful lips with bloodstains clotted!

Not a Bruchlein in sight…

Hansen’s staging was quite striking. He used two levels with minimal props; chairs, some cloth, flowers and petals and picture frames hanging here and there. The colour scheme was black, white and red with both singers in striking red dresses and long gloves. The “cast” moved and interacted in this framework; more in the sense of forming tableaux than establishing any kind of narrative but I found it interesting, rather than distracting (though for balance sake I’ll point out that my companion felt the opposite). There were a few dramatic moments, notably when Rachel became a vast red bird while singing Gamayun also some curious interplay in which Jacquie appeared to become a cello. And, yea, there were surtitles. I’ve said it before, one can’t expect an audience to read 8pt text with the lights down!

It’s quite a short show but very enjoyable and I’d highly recommend it. There are two more chances to see Open Chambers: Hindemith and Shostakovich; tomorrow night at 7.30pm or December 1st at 9pm.

Photo credits: Dahlia Katz

]]>https://operaramblings.blog/2018/11/29/open-chambers/feed/0operaramblingsOpen Chambers #15Open Chambers #3Open Chambers #4Open Chambers #11Open Chambers #7Art nouveau Requiemhttps://operaramblings.blog/2018/11/27/art-nouveau-requiem/
https://operaramblings.blog/2018/11/27/art-nouveau-requiem/#respondTue, 27 Nov 2018 14:01:08 +0000http://operaramblings.blog/?p=25325Continue reading →]]>Slightly off the usual Operaramblings track perhaps, but my attention was recently drawn to a book publishing project that may be of interest. It’s a bilingual Latin/English text of the Mozart Requiem illustrated by artist Matt Hughes in art nouveau style. It’s going to be a 60pp edition with 15 full colour illustrations including gold ink. It’s hard cover bound with the edition size yet to be finalized but quite small. Right now it’s at the Kickstarter phase with a still a little way to go to meet target and allow publication. The book will include an introduction to the piece and the various stories/legends about its completion by the Guardian‘s music critic Erica Jeal and an essay on art nouveau by art blogger and gallery owner Olga Harmsen. There are more details and samples of the art work on Matt’s website or you could just go straight to the Kickstarter page.
]]>https://operaramblings.blog/2018/11/27/art-nouveau-requiem/feed/0operaramblingsanrequiemSend in the cloneshttps://operaramblings.blog/2018/11/25/send-in-the-clones/
https://operaramblings.blog/2018/11/25/send-in-the-clones/#commentsSun, 25 Nov 2018 20:53:11 +0000http://operaramblings.blog/?p=25312Continue reading →]]>Stefano Poda’s production of Turandot (he is also responsible for the sets, costumes and lighting) for Teatro Regio Torino, recorded in early 2018, is one of the most visually effective productions of this (or perhaps any opera) that I’ve seen. I don’t know whether it makes “sense” (but I’m also not sure that any Turandot does) and, if it does, I doubt one would be able to unpack it in a single viewing because there’s a lot going on (but see comment at the end).

It’s largely set in a very high walled white cube. Indeed in Act 1 almost everything is white; clothes, wigs, lights. The exceptions are Calaf, Timur and Liu who are in black and large numbers of almost naked dancers. All the denizens of Peking appear to have a red vertical line running from forehead to groin. Right at the end Turandot (I think) appears in a red skirt to (maybe) execute the latest victim. There’s some quite complex choreography (presumably by Poda) really well executed.

Act 2 opens in a morgue with more characters in white and more, more or less naked dancers. Turandot is essentially indistinguishable from a large crowd of lookalikes. They even lip synch when she is singing solo as in “In questa reggia”. For the riddle scene, Calaf is off to one side, in a sort of cell, on a chaise longue. And there’s lots more dancing. For Act 3, the colour scheme more or less reverses. Now Turandot and the court are in black but Liu is in white. Liu’s “suicide” is highly stylized and she walks away from it, smiling, with Timur. And that’s pretty much it because this production ends where Puccini did. Neither the Alfano or Berio conclusions are used. So, in summary, visually intriguing but a bit perplexing.

Musically it’s pretty decent. Rebeka Lokar sings powerfully as Turandot but doesn’t really get to be a “character”. One possible interpretation would be that Turandot doesn’t literally exist as an individual. What she represents if not though, I have no idea. Erika Grimaldi is fine as Liu. Jorge de León is a decent actor but he’s not the most vocally compelling Calaf and, I think, he lowers the pitch on “Nessun dorma”. The chorus and orchestra are really good though and Gianandrea Noseda gets a musically satisfying performance from all concerned.

Video direction is by Tiziano Mancini and it’s pretty good. He does get a bit “arty” at times but maybe that’s less out of place here than in more literal productions. He uses a lot of wide angle shots from high up in the house which really help with figuring out what’s going on. On Blu-ray the picture is fine but I found the DTS-HD-MA sound a bit muddy. The stereo option seems cleaner and is very decent. The only extras on the disk are some trailers and the booklet is utilitarian with a very short essay, synopsis and track listing. Subtitle options are English, Italian, French, German, Spanish, Korean and Japanese.

This disk is interesting and worth a look but I have to believe there are better sung Turandot‘s out there. I would prefer the most recent La Scala recording if it weren’t for some sound issues and the Calaf’s acting (or lack of it). I still haven’t found a Turandot recording I could unconditionally recommend.

]]>https://operaramblings.blog/2018/11/25/send-in-the-clones/feed/2operaramblings1.cube2.redskirt3.morgue4.riddle5.clones6.liuEnergetic Street Scenehttps://operaramblings.blog/2018/11/23/energetic-street-scene/
https://operaramblings.blog/2018/11/23/energetic-street-scene/#commentsFri, 23 Nov 2018 13:38:21 +0000http://operaramblings.blog/?p=25301Continue reading →]]>This year’s fall production by UoT Opera is Kurt Weill’s Street Scene. It’s a tricky piece in many ways. It’s part opera, part Broadway musical. The moods range from light comedy to something very much darker and lurking treacherously at its core is a sentimental streak that can easily overwhelm its merits. Michael Patrick Albano’s production, coupled with Anna Theodosakis’ energetic and varied choreography, managed to keep the focus on the strengths of the piece and deliver a very satisfying evening at the theatre.

Choreography aside there’s nothing fancy about the production. All the action takes place in and in front of a couple of tenement houses but the space is well used; the singers get to sing to the audience and it’s only cluttered when the director wants it to be. Theodosakis’ choreography, featuring multiple dance styles from tap to jitterbug, is well integrated and feels organic. It helps enormously that this year, as ever, the UoT program seems to have found a good number of singers who can dance, and dance very well.

Fairly unusually for a UoT Opera production most roles in Street Scene are not double cast so the cast reviewed is the one you will see if you go tonight or on Sunday with the non-trivial exceptions of Anna and Rose Maurrant and Sam Kaplan. So let’s start there. The two young lovers are sung by Matthew Cairns and Emma Greve. They both have really nice voices. Matthew, of course, just won Centre Stage with his somewhat unusual, slightly baritonal tenor. Emma has a sweet voice with just a touch of the usual young soprano issues in the upper register. They both inhabit their parts. Matthew is the earnest, slightly dorky young man the plot needs. Emma looks every inch the young lady who might just have a stage career if you wasn’t so respectable.

Then there are the senior Marraunts. Tatiana Stanishich is a really good Anna. It’s a mature portrayal of an unhappy and disappointed woman. She sings well too. The rather unlovely part of Frank has been given, wisely I think, to experienced professional Peter McGillivray. His powerful vocal and physical presence help create a character who, if the work were set today, would be wearing a Trump baseball cap. He’s brutish, nostalgic in the worst possible way and essentially unstable. McGillivray brings out all these characteristics in full measure.

The rest of the cast is huge and the many “just a bit larger than cameo” roles are too many to detail. I would single out though Caroline Stanczyk and Alex Bowie for an engagingly energetic performance as Mae Jones and Dick McGann. Candidates for Drunkly Come Dancing here!

Sandra Horst was in the pit with the UoT Symphony. The orchestra managed a good job of being jazzy but not too jazzy and Sandra produced a fine piece of pit/stage co-ordination given the business on stage.

Street Scene plays at the MacMillan Theatre in the music faculty building with shows tonight and tomorrow night at 7.30pm and Sunday at 2.30pm.

Photo credits: Richard Lu

]]>https://operaramblings.blog/2018/11/23/energetic-street-scene/feed/1operaramblingsss6ss1ss2ss3ss4ss5Bound 2.0https://operaramblings.blog/2018/11/20/bound-2-0/
https://operaramblings.blog/2018/11/20/bound-2-0/#respondTue, 20 Nov 2018 11:46:29 +0000http://operaramblings.blog/?p=25292Continue reading →]]>The second of three projected iterations of Against the Grain Theatre’s Bound opened last night at The Great Hall. Version one was staged but in piano score. Last night’s version was sung off music stands but with a chamber ensemble and major changes to the music. It’s going to be interesting to see how the production version, due this time next year shapes up.

For the purposes of this performance the number of prisoners has been reduced to four, the spoken dialogue has been omitted and the voice of The State has a greatly reduced role. The focus is very much on the music and that has come a long way. It’s no longer Handel with a few tweaks by Kevin Lau, it’s more Kevin Lau meets Handel in a dark alley. There are still Handelian arias (i.e basically Handel’s music given new Joel Ivany lyrics) but there is much more music where bits of Handel are reworked; included being electronically sampled and worked into an electronic track that plays either alone or with the live musicians. It creates a dense and complex soundscape from which the familiar melodies emerge almost as a statement of hope. I don’t have an encyclopaedic knowledge of Handel’s vocal works but it did seem that we got more of the English works than the Italian operas which makes sense. The deceptively simple but beautiful tune of, say, As Steals the Morn offers more of a change of mood than a flashy coloratura aria. I would rate this score a real success.

Miriam Khalil, Topher Mokrzewski

It’s harder to be so sure about the libretto because so much of it was missing last night and the whole plot line really wasn’t there either. I still think there needs to be something resembling a plot, rather than a series of individual stories connected only by the idea of anybody not conforming falling foul of The State. That may emerge in the final version. I did think that reducing the number of characters from seven to four was a good idea. It simplified things and, I thought, made it easier to identify with the characters. Others might argue that a greater variety of characters makes it easier for the audience to find someone to identify with. Again, we’ll see how the final version tackles that issue.

Topher Mokrzewski, Justin Welsh, David Trudgen

Then there’s the way language is used in the libretto. To reverse Wilfred Owen’s famous aphorism, the Pity is in the Poetry and there isn’t quite enough of the latter. If one is going to build an aria around a couple of lines of text that text has to contain depths of meaning. Essentially banal statements of “The I am strong and I will beat them” variety pall pretty quickly. There are places where this libretto rises above that level; notably Andrew Haji’s aria about what he hopes to achieve in his homeland, but other occasions where, IMHO, it doesn’t. Still, there’s time to look at that.

Miriam Khalil

The performances were very strong. Three of the original performers; Miriam Khalil, David Trudgen and Justin Welsh were back and just as skilled and committed as before. They were joined by Andrew Haji who sang quite beautifully. Everybody seemed quite comfortable transitioning between obviously Handelian music and the newer idiom. There was fine playing from the ensemble and Topher Mokrzewski, conducting, not only created a coherent sound picture from the various musical elements in play but was rather fun to watch.

So there we have it. The music for Bound has come a long way since last year and is now really impressive. We’ll see what happens as focus turns back to plot, dramaturgy and the libretto as the final version comes together. With a bit more progress on that front, the final version of Bound could be very exciting indeed. I also think it’s very brave of the AtG folks to workshop WIP in public like this.

There are two more chances to catch this show; tonight and tomorrow night at 8pm in Longboat Hall at The Great Hall on Queen Street West.